TLDR
The TLDR, named after the internet acronym for "too long; didn't read", is an off-topic message board that that has been in operation since 2005, being the longest-running WoW Off-topic spin-off. There have been many incarnations of TLDR over the years; for its first few years it was an Invisionfree forum before it started being independently-hosted in late 2006. TLDR also has a long history of experimental merges with other Off-topic forums, sometimes being quite successful and sometimes resulting in disastrous consequences for both forums. Demographics In the beginning, TLDR was primarily made up of posters in their mid-to-late teens. As time went on, the population gradually aged, becoming a mostly college-aged forum by 2010 and an almost exclusively twenty-something-or-older forum by 2013. It is expected that this trend will continue until Tilders join AARP together and then begin to pass away from old age on-by-one while still browsing the forum. Due to the locations of World of Warcraft servers at launch (i.e. Australians playing on North American realms due to there being initially no Oceanic servers), in its early years TLDR was made up entirely of North Americans and Australians. After first contact with OT:U in 2008, an influx of European posters began, several of them -- Brone and kayc chief among them -- becoming notable foreground posters. As time went on, TLDR began to more closely integrate with their European counterparts at OT:U and OT:C, even sharing Razakel as their host at one point. This close integration culminated in the closure of OT:C in 2013, causing a further mass immigration of Europeans to TLDR. Although overwhelmingly white, heterosexual, and male, throughout most of TLDR's history it has seen a consistent posting tradition from minorities, homosexuals, and females. At the same time, it has seen a consistent tradition of racist, sexist, and homophobic humor and rhetoric, perhaps surpassed only by 4chan and Stormfront. Culture and Interests Upon its founding in 2005, TLDR's culture was almost indistinguishable from the WoW Off-topic's. Its primary interests were mostly YTMND and raiding. Over time, as it diverged from the WoW community, 4chan culture overtook the forum from approximately 2006 - 2009. Unsurprisingly, video game culture has played a consistent part in TLDR's history as well. By 2010, the core of TLDR posters were Steam, Valve, and Gabe Newell fanatics (Gabe would eventually post on TLDR himself in the summer of 2010). History The founder of the TLDR, NickLachey, created the first Invisionfree TLDR in early July, 2005 as a spin-off of the WoW OT. Its popularity quickly grew and it saw a high amount of posts in its early days. The foremost event of this era was a raid on the EmmaWatson.net forums, causing a hacker to infiltrate the TLDR in response and cause untold panic. The TLDR 1.0 was deleted by Invisionfree due to its content and the false report of a disgruntled former member in October, which led to a struggle for control between the original admins and HellPenguin, who tried to make his forum, DoS, the next incarnation of TLDR. The original admins created the second Invisionfree TLDR, which, after some early struggles, eventually defeated DoS and became the true continuation of TLDR. Soon afterward, Tiffanie approached the admins and offered to host TLDR himself, resulting in the first independently hosted version at TheTLDR.com. After several months of success in which the TLDR absorbed the population of the failing OTR, Tiffanie lost interest and the TLDR community returned to their previous forum at Invisionfree in early 2006. The following Summer, the TLDR engaged in a forum war with a rival OT spinoff, TIAC. After a successful attack which resulted in the deletion of TIAC's entire posting history, TIAC's administrator, Raistlin, reported TLDR to Invisionfree, which caused TLDR to be deleted approximately a month later. Several months after founding a new Invisionfree forum in which time Morek led a failed revolt against what he viewed to be an oppressive administration, a long-time TLDR admin, Lazrik, decided to pay for private hosting for the TLDR in late October, resulting in the birth of TheTLDR.org. Throughout its history, TheTLDR.org saw internal struggle and multiple disasters. Morek led a second revolt against Lazrik, which eventually resulted in the original founder, NickLachey, gaining admin once again, having lost his status earlier due to his extended absence in late 2005 and early 2006. Following a period of high activity and quality in the Spring, in the Summer of 2007 the TLDR's posts were deleted multiple times accidentally and because of software updates, intentionally because of posters such as Pintsized and Haze who abused their moderator privelages, and the TLDR suffered from downtime and lag due to low-quality hosts. The resulting departure of some members and the severe drop in activity in late summer led doom-sayers to predict TLDR's end. However, credit its eventual recovery to Scyle, who, after Morek took a chance and promoted him to admin, banned several members who he believed were ruining TLDR's quality. He also got Coreiel, the former WoW OT moderator, to briefly post, which caused activity to spike dramatically in a matter of a few days. Many of the posters who had left returned during this time. Following a relatively active period in late 2007 and early 2008, in February TLDR merged with another, much younger, OT Spin-off called FreeOT, and the two forums became united under the name Dregs of Society, bringing an end to over two and a half years of TLDR history. which was renamed to TheTLDR.com in mid 2008. See Also History of the TLDR Category:OT Spin-offs Category:Internet Forums